I have searched and found a few tidbits of info but no real guide on how to do it.
A little history...
I bought my (first) RX-7 3 weeks ago. 85 GSL-SE: 178k miles, 5-speed, high/rough idle, maybe a 5 cosmetically but overall seemingly in good shape.
I've gotten to drive it maybe 7 times (about 100 miles total) and now I get huge billowing clouds of white smoke on cold start that mostly disappear after it warms up with a puff between shifts. I am keeping a constant eye on the coolant level but it doesn't appear to have dropped any. The temp gauge is reading anywhere from 1/4 to 1/3. However my oil level has dropped about 1 qt. Strange huh?
There is a rattling/grinding noise in 1st-3rd that isn't there in 4th and 5th.

I've found a 60k S4 engine and S5 tranny combo semi-locally that I am planning on swapping into my SE.

This is what I hope will work. I would appreciate any help or hints if I've overlooked anything.

• SE front cover, dist, oil pickup, oil pan
• SE AFM
• S4 engine, intake, TB
• S5 5-speed n/a tranny with swapped SE tail housing
• SE injectors and leave S4 top injectors in but unplugged or find a way to plug the holes
• S4 OMP
• remove cruise control or just leave the cable unhooked
• SE sensors
• SE exhaust manifold (I didn't even get a chance to buy headers before the problems started)

Am I leaving anything out? Any more info on the sensors?
I've done a few piston engine swaps and one turbo upgrade so I'm fairly confident in my abilities with getting the mechanical stuff installed but all the sensor swaps from one gen to another and electrical mumbo-jumbo have me a little scared.

I'm also getting an S5 ECU and wiring harness in the deal. Is there any use for these in the swap other than ebay fodder to recoup some cash?

Well that is my sob story and my plan for trying to make a lemon into lemonade.
Hey, what better way is there to learn about your new car than to rip it's guts out and then stuff new ones back in?
Any comments and/or words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the long post,
Mark

 

I don't now much about the swap but I can tell you that the smoke that you're experiencing is the fact that your oil control o-ring is gone. White smoke is a sign that you're burning oil and blue smoke is the sign that you're burning coolant. It'd be cheaper just to tear down the engine and replace the oil control o-ring rather than swapping in an entirely new engine. The same thing's wrong with my engine

But if you want to make the swap really easy just pick up the holley intake system for the 6port throw that on there along with a new low pressure fuel pump. Then jsut swap the front plate, omp, and oil pan and you're done

 

Isn't that the other way around?



--Alex

 

yea, i'm pretty sure blue smoke is oil and white smoke is coolant...but i think that the "blue" smoke looks more white under some conditions. Especially if your losing oil. Good luck with that swap, would you care to document it? Maybe after your lemon is lemonade you can convert it over to pink lemonade. lol